Transformational Leadership Style, Structural Empowerment and Staff Outcomes in Nursing Home Settings

This study aimed to describe transformational leadership style, structural empowerment, and staff outcomes and associated factors. A further aim was to explore factors that potentially explain commitment to the workplace and the profession in the context of nursing homes.

An explorative cross-sectional study design with two datasets.

The target group consisted of staff working in 24-h, long- or short-term care in Finnish nursing homes. Data were collected between November 2022 and April 2023 through a survey, including background questions and two instruments: The Transformational Leadership Scale and the Conditions for Work Effectiveness Questionnaire II for structural empowerment. The data were analysed by descriptive and multivariate statistical methods.

A total of 97 nurse leaders (response rate 76%) and 503 care personnel (response rate 21%) participated. Transformational leadership, work-related well-being, overall health, and job satisfaction were rated as good. Nurse leaders reported higher scores than care personnel. Nurse leaders assessed their structural empowerment as moderate. They rated opportunity and information as the strongest dimensions of structural empowerment, while resources were the weakest dimension. Care personnel reported a lack of opportunities to participate in decision-making and to advance their careers. For nurse leaders, factors explaining commitment to their current workplace were work-related well-being and commitment to the profession, while for care personnel these were valuing one's own work, nurse leaders' transformational leadership, work-related well-being, and commitment to the profession. The factors explaining care personnel's commitment to the profession were work-related well-being, valuing one's own work, and commitment to the current workplace.

Transformational leadership and structural empowerment appear to be important factors associated with positive staff outcomes in nursing home settings. Nursing homes are complex and currently understudied environments, highlighting the need for further research to explore different associations and potential explanatory factors in this context.